What is the title of your latest release?
THE THREE LIVES OF MARY SUTTON
What’s the “elevator pitch” for THE THREE LIVES OF MARY SUTTON?
THE THREE LIVES OF MARY SUTTON shows the gritty underside of the Gilded Age. In 1878 Mary Sutton and her sister Lizzie are fighting against a world run by men. They’re hoping to find an independent path at a time when women had three approved roles: daughter, wife, mother. Each sister follows a different path – the question is: which one makes the better choice?
How did you decide to start writing about Gilded Age New York? Did you already plan to write about this era before you thought to base the main character on a family member, or did it all start because of your great grand-mother?
It started with a carton full of genealogy research that my aunt had collected. My cousin sent the box to me after my aunt died; she had the idea I might be interested. The documents included some letters sent by Mary Sutton to her son, my grandfather. The sentences that caught my eye were “Your father dallied making a home, and when the time came for me to be sick, I took things into my own hands, found a place to go, and went. Not a word to anybody. Of course, there was a hue and cry.”
When she talks about “the time for me to be sick” she means “when she was in the last stage of pregnancy”. In 1879, where could a woman, nine months pregnant, go? What could have driven her to take such a drastic step? How did she avoid being found? How could she raise a child on her own? While I was trying to figure out answers to these questions, I found myself in the middle of a story.
Describe the experience you had basing Mame not only on a real person, but a family member. Did you have any reservations? Were all of your current family members supportive?
I was incredibly lucky in that, just as I was beginning to do some research about Mary Sutton, I got a letter from a cousin I hadn’t known about, asking for some information about my branch of the family. Holly Price is an expert at genealogical research and basically took over for me – she found ship’s passenger logs, birth and death records, cemetery plots, poorhouse records – it was amazing! My other family members were casually supportive – it all happened generations ago, and just a story to them.
You cover a lot of ground in the book, from the bakery/keeping house to behind the scenes in NYC theater, to nursing. What are some of the most unexpected things you learned while researching and writing THE THREE LIVES OF MARY SUTTON?
I learned that actors and actresses in the theatres supplied their own costumes. Actresses were expert at transforming a dress from a nurse’s outfit to a ball gown with whatever accessories they had on hand. I learned that even in those days there were road companies of popular shows, and the theatre people traveled from New York to San Francisco for productions, and even as far as Australia. I learned a lot about the business of wet nursing – now that’s a profession almost as dead today as making buggy whips! And I learned that Mary Sutton’ father died in the poorhouse, estranged from all his children – sad!
What are three words that describe Mary "Mame" Sutton (the fictionalized character)?
Headstrong, feisty, determined.
Would you hang out with Mame in real life?
It would be fun to hang out with Mame – she has a sense of humor, she takes risks, she’s not afraid to put out her own opinions. Her friends would always be on the lookout for what she might do next.
The setting is definitely a main character in the novel. How did you set about bringing Gilded Age NYC back to life? What was the most challenging aspect? The most rewarding?
The most challenging aspect was to recreate what family life was like – the dominant authority of the father, the woman’s need to go along to get along, and for a woman the horrible reality of endless pregnancies and childhood mortality.
The most rewarding aspect was locating some real pioneers like Susan Lukens in medicine and Mary Glen Chitty in the theatre, and bringing them, or characters based on them, into the story.
Now for some general questions. Describe your writing space/office!
I have a corner set aside in our living room, with a good-sized table and. windows looking out at trees. I have a folding screen that hides the clutter from the main part of the room. The table is covered with stacks of papers: critiques from my writing group, historical references, people to contact for publicity, notes from traveling. My housekeeper is not allowed to touch anything; I know just what is in each stack.
Is there a book that changed your life?
The first book that really made a deep impression on me was W. Somerset Maugham’s OF HUMAN BONDAGE. It was considered a classic when I read it in high school, but I don’t think people read it often now. At the time, I was completely absorbed in the life of Philip Carey, the protagonist. We first meet him as an orphaned child being introduced to the home of his new guardian, his uncle, and we follow him through schooling to young manhood. Philip was the first fictional character that I really believed in.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I like to read historical fiction like Marie Benedict’s THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM and stories of other cultures, like Alka Joshii’s THE HENNA ARTIST. And I like doorstop-sized family epics, like Verghese’s THE COVENANT OF WATER.
What other genres would you like to explore writing?
I have a cross-cultural historical romance in the works, and I’m thinking of it as a Young Adult novel. I’m also working on the story of my grandfather, which is a challenge as it would be written from a man’s point of view.
What’s your favorite movie?
Love Actually. It stars all my favorites - Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightly, and more. It’s a fun, happy movie.
What is your favorite season?
Autumn. September always feels like it’s starting a new year to me, much more than New Year’s in January.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Get as much of my extended family together as I can and go on a picnic.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Movie: The Count of Monte Christo - The French version that came out in 2024 starring Pierre Niney and had a short run in theatres. It’s almost three hours long and not a minute is wasted. If you’re going to adapt a thousand-page classic, this is the way to do it.
Book: WHISTLER by Anne Patchett. Patchett tells stories about ordinary people doing their best to cope with the unexpected twists of life. She makes you believe.
What’s an upcoming tv show/movie/book/podcast you are anticipating?
I’m a big fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, and the last novel in the series is due out one of these days. There was a seven-year gap between the 8th and the 9th in the series, so I hope I live long enough.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
It varies depending on where I’ve recently been, and what new restaurants have opened in my town. Right now, I’m leaning toward Nepalese.
What do you do when you have free time?
I read, write, or if I’m working off a bad mood, I attack the weeds in my garden. And I have to admit to a secret addiction to Spider Solitaire.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on a sequel to THE THREE LIVES OF MARY SUTTON which would follow the career of my grandfather. It’s a lot trickier, as his history is almost too well documented. It would include characters whose descendants might be offended, since the story is not as far back. Should I change the names? Mmmm, then it loses authenticity.
And there’s that YA novel.
For fans of Marie Benedict and Rachel Beanland, this debut novel shows a grittier side of the Gilded Age as two young women struggle to find their own way in 1880s New York, where the cards are stacked in favor of men.
In 1878, young Mame Sutton escapes her oppressive father through a quick marriage to the charming stage manager of a New York theatre, while her younger sister Lizzie makes the same escape by eloping with a young Jewish jeweler. Which sister has made the better choice?
Life for Mame in a theatrical boarding house in 1878 offers new kinds of friendships and unexpected challenges. Through the tales of the theatre workers, she gets a backstage look at the Gilded Age of the Astors, Goulds, and Rockefellers, but she has no share in the freedom given to the ladies of the stage. Her husband’s view of a wife’s role is as narrow as her father’s idea of a daughter’s role was. How can Mame break free?
For Lizzie, marriage into the Cohen family offers warmth and support, but also cultural differences and expectations which she finds hard to master. Her husband, though loving and tolerant of her mistakes, is financially dependent on his family. Lizzie longs for a life apart from the Cohen world.
When disasters shake their worlds, can the sisters help each other onto new paths?
Women's Fiction Historical [ She Writes Press, On Sale: November 10, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9798896362104 / eISBN: 9798896362111 ]
Allyson Johnson is a native Californian. After majoring in English literature at Stanford University, she had a brief career as a high school teacher and a longer career in sales/marketing with technology companies. For the past twelve years she has written a monthly op-ed column and worked as a freelance stringer for a local weekly newspaper, the Los Altos Town Crier. She also maintains a travel/commentary blog. When not writing she assembles quilts, practices calligraphy, and attacks weeds. Johnson currently resides in Los Altos, California.
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